And, the local news reports indicate a both a dramatic drop in traffic and a decrease in travel time for the folks who ride the MTA buses. The only big losers–so far–are the owners of the extortionate parking garages, who are hurting for business. Who knows… perhaps they will drop their rate from the current $30 per hour in order to attract business?
I know parking in Boston has gone down in recent years. Probably because many people are working at home and no longer need the monthly parking. Some garages are really hurting for business.
One of the worst places for parking is on a large university campus. When I was in my 2nd round of graduate school, we lived in married student housing. I.paid the $25 a semester for a campus bus pass. I would get on the bus and be in the building in 5 minutes where my classes were held and I had an office as a graduate assistant.
There were graduate students that were on the same program that I was on. They lived off campus in luxury apartments. They fought traffic every day and had to search for parking. These students were there a year before I enrolled and were still there after I finished my coursework 2 years later.
Our son took a page out of my notebook. He is on the faculty at a mid-sized state university. Before he accepted the job, he lived 35 minutes away from campus. After he got the job, he sold his house and bought a condo that is a 5 minute walk to his office. He says that the move gives him an extra hour a day, plus he doesn’t have to worry about parking.
Most of those anti gubmint types is that they’re most dependent on government. Many are first responders. Guess who is their boss? Or they drive on government highways. Or send their kids to government schools. Or collect government social security or Medicare. I could go on and on.
Frankly I think we should take them at their word. End all government spending. The smart and/or ambitious will somehow adapt. And the anti gubmint types? Whatever.
Chicagoan here. No tolls in Chicago except the skyway bridge. And our expressways are bumper to bumper even off peak. And poorly maintained.
Maybe you’re thinking of the suburbs which have toll roads. They’re excellent. Well maintained. Relatively light traffic. And relatively cheap. I wish the expressways in Chicago were toll too.
…or take mass transit. NYC’s mass transit makes owning a car unnecessary, so it’s not as if the congestion charge would do more than irritate people who choose to drive when they don’t have to.
As a resident of Florida, I’d love to have the option of not owning a car, but mass transit here is terribly ineffective and the state legislature refuses to do anything about our skyrocketing insurance premiums. They’re too busy distracting voters with wedge issues to fix actual problems.
You’ve cited examples of states that spend less, but you haven’t substantiated your case that they are actually more efficient. Spending less doesn’t mean they aren’t more wasteful.
My family in Illinois don’t consider it a high tax state. The income tax rate there is only 4.95%.
Do you get the same services from the state of Florida that you got in other states? I used to live in Ohio. My state, local and property taxes were much higher in Ohio than Florida but the services are as good or better. I lived in 2 different counties where I paid for trash pickup. I live in Lee county and my trash gets picked up 3 times a week (trash, recycling, and vegetation) for the cost of my much lower property taxes. Just my personal experiences.
As for comparisons with the rest of the country… look to educational performance, road quality, poverty levels, ect.
As for insurance… we live in a state with the greatest exposure to hurricanes with most of the population living on the coast at less that 10 foot elevation. What do you want the legislature to do?
Cap the cost? …That will chase the rest of the insurers out of the state.
Force everyone to update their homes to 2025 building codes? …That will make insurance cheaper (I know it will, I did that) but it will cost homeowners quite a bit.(It did cost quite a bit)
We are open to your suggestions, so post your ideas to reduce insurance costs. Or better yet, email your legislators
That’s how I did it, could study while riding the bus, another advantage. A friend thought this was too “pedestrian” for him, so parked on campus where he wanted and just ignored the tickets, thinking he’e only be there a year or two & would never have to pay them. He developed a big frown come graduation time; he told me he had to pay all the old parking tickets and add’l fines for not paying on time, or he woudn’t be allowed to graduate … lol … He said he’d get even by not donating any money to the alumni ass’n.
Living in NYC has always been unnecessary. The people who want to stay will. Offices will become residences. (I know this is difficult because residences require windows, which typical offices make hard. But what people are willing to pay…) More people will live there. I may be wrong, but NYC has grown and become richer, except for that patch in the '70s and '80s. So far it’s been a loser’s bet to bet against it. We’ll see.
Clark Kerr, UC president, famously said that his job was to ‘provide football for the alumni, parking for the faculty, and sex for the students.’
They choose to because it BENEFITS them. Many retail companies still prefer being in a large mall setting instead of a strip-mall even though rent is significantly higher - BECAUSE IT BENEFITS THEM. Even today where a lot of shopping is on-line the brick-and-mortar retail businesses still prefer a mall setting. The exceptions are stores like Walmart. Most car dealerships prefer to have their dealership located near other dealerships even though they are rivals - BECAUSE IT BENEFITS THEM. Many people like to visit multiple dealerships when shopping for a car and it’s easier for them to have them all in one place. It’s been proven time and time again in most cases that the lone-wolf dealership 10 miles away from a cluster of dealerships won’t do the same volume business.
That’s true, but I still think back to 2002, when GM told the old guy who owned my local Subaru/Saab dealership that he had to relocate to busy US-1, and build a new showroom near other dealerships, or they would yank his Saab franchise.
He told them to pound salt, and he lost the franchise. About 6 years later, GM dumped Saab, and not very long after that, the Saab brand ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, the increase in Subaru sales volume (at his old location, on a secondary road) gave him a bigger income than the days when he sold both Saab and Subaru. Sometimes, defying “the boss” can really pay-off.
People chose to live in NYC because that’s where jobs were concentrated. Lots of opportunity close by in the age where most walked or rode horse-drawn busses and later trains and subways to work.
Those jobs were in NYC because it was the center of (pick one) the financial industry, the business systems industry, the garment industry, the show business industry, and manufacturing of all kinds. For many years, if your business was not headquartered in NYC, you really were not a significant participant in your industry.
And the businesses were in NYC because they could get workers. Lots of workers nearby. Each side was there because it benefitted them to BE there.
Manufacturing mostly left NYC. Show business is still a big tourist draw. But finance and business systems or any business that can be done from the internet can locate anywhere so they are leaving the city for lower tax locations.
That is true, but the population of Northern & Central NJ continues to grow, and many–perhaps most–of the new residents are younger people who commute into NYC for the high salaries. They choose to live in NJ because the rent/condo costs are not as outrageously high as in NYC.
To return to the original topic, it appears that this plan is having the desired effect on traffic congestion:
The MTA reported that since the congestion pricing plan was launched on Jan. 5, more than 1 million fewer vehicles have entered the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) than they would have without the toll.
Since the launch of congestion pricing, the MTA has reported that an average of 490,000 vehicles enter the CRZ daily, while an additional 63,000 travel through the Central Business District (CBD) using toll-exempt roadways.
TRANSCOM provided data to the MTA saying how drivers have been experiencing much faster commutes.
What they’re saying:
** Inbound trip times on all Hudson and East River crossings are now 10% to 30% faster or more than they were in January 2024.*
** Drivers crossing via the Holland Tunnel are experiencing the most improved daily time crossings, with a 48% reduction on average during peak morning hours.*
** The Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges are both experiencing an average of 30% faster trip times.*
** Drivers on the Long Island Expressway, Flatbush Avenue, NJ 495 and other roads leading up to crossings have been seeing improved speeds.*
Data from TRANSCOM also showed that drivers in the CRZ are experiencing travel time improvements especially during afternoon peak hours with reductions as high as 59%.